It is Sunday evening in Georgia,
and all I can say is that I’m glad I’m not in Atlanta. However, I’ve got a daughter, a son-in-law, and a granddaughter in Charleston, SC, and it’s bad there, too.
Honestly, I’m furious and sickened by the senseless thuggery and domestic terrorism that’s spreading havoc across the country. There’s no excuse for it. None.
Well, I’ve written about the subject of the protests and riots, already. So, what I’m going to do tonight is share the video that was my day.
The first video is from Facebook. I hope you can view it. I went live this morning before the scheduled morning service that had been recorded earlier.
The second video is of the service prerecorded for airing at 11 a.m. Unfortunately, I got the date wrong! 😩
The last video is from tonight where I was live from Augusta, GA. Even though it was originally on Facebook Live, I uploaded it to YouTube. In this study I taught from Acts 9 while sitting in a hotel lobby.
The Recovering Legalist 
George Floyd’s brother Mentioned the church, that they were a family of faith. I would think if Trump or the Police force Hired Georges brother to be an advocate for victims of Police brutality, speaking at Police colleges and training centres, He would have a level of Authority to speak to the abuse of power while in compromised situations.
We all must be aware we have a bully pulpit. We ourselves can abuse people. Even Pastors can be intolerant to anyone but them knowing or being able to do this or that or to have a right opinion. When a level of contempt for others takes over Love is lost and concern for peoples welfare goes out the window.
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IF there was just a slight bit of concern about George Floyd, when he stopped moving on the ground, the Officer would have checked and said enough is enough. But he was bound to punish him for not getting into the car and wanted to squash him. We might do that to someone as well. When people disagree with us. We might hunt them in the church and speak poorly of them, exclude them from leadership or participating in something, because they don’t do as we say when we say it.
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We need to be real careful when casting blame on the Police officer. Only seconds before he was talking nice to George, all was well. Even when he was putting pressure on his neck the Officer felt justified. There was no freaking out in his face. We might do the same thing to someone who wont do things our way. Specially when we are in charge. He clearly killed the man. He clearly had a level of indifference. We people are easy to judge but have a hard time applying any ownership of that sort of thing to ourselves. That Police officer, not even 10 minutes earlier thought he would kill anyone. But once he decided he was going to show he was in charge, He had to win. Human nature is something that does not avoid the pulpit, the construction site or the Presidents office or even the operating room.
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I believe one of the horrors of the moments is the realization we might have had our buttons pushed as well and neglected the welfare of someone. Back in our minds we might see ourselves as the cop as the leader who will not be put down ourselves and in an effort to assume authority we may have had thoughts, even actions that harmed others.
Well said.
One other point. I don’t know about You, but I bet its the same. I have felt a level of grief that I didn’t even feel at my mothers funeral. for some reason, I am brought to tears. Not for George so much while I am sad for him, he is dead. But I feel a grief a loss a broken heart.
I think you may find that there are those with PTSD who are deeply affected, that will not be the same after this event. Marriages may break up, families might be destroyed. When someone has a car accident or serious event happen in their life, cancer etc. there is a clarity a tossing off of others and nothing seems to matter anymore. The clean up of emotional wreckage will be heavy. The Isolation from Covid and the live video over and over the fire in the street will imprint this, scar all of us. And we will be different.
I think we can try to rally people to love one another. to Hug each other to pull each other in closely, because it is us, we harm others, we destroy things, and we are sorry, all of us have failed in some way in those moments. We all lived that moment and are grieving not just for George but for the things we ourselves have wrecked. We all need a hug of sorts.
And it is why Gods mercy, Gods love, Gods forgiveness is so great. Its because of his love that we can say, it will be OK.